In public relations, a key step on the career path is an internship. I know only a few people who skipped this stage in the process. Where I work, we hire one or two interns per semester. It’s not Dean Whitter, but it’s a fairly competitive internship.

My work pal Kristin is in charge of the selection process and mentoring of the interns. She does a great job, and it’s an important one. We’re selective about our interns because they are integrated immediately into our client teams and get to do real client work from day one. We do not have interns fetching coffee or making copies; it’s a real-time, real-life experience. Kristin knows this, having been an intern herself in the past, and takes care in the critical selection step. If timing is right, and the happy coincidence occurs for an intern that we’re looking to fill a junior level position at the end of their internship, they have an advantage in the hiring process. Kristin makes sure that interns added to our team bring personalities, attitudes, interest and skills that complement our teams and works with them through the semester to make sure they’re getting the most our of their experience. They’re as lucky to have her as we are to have them on the team.

Interns need to seek opportunites with the attributes that define a successful internship experience:

1. Actual Work. The opportunity to participate actively in client work is critical. This includes plenty of writing, brainstorm sessions, thought contribution and task management.
2. Networking. A good internship will provide the intern the opportunity to get to know clients, and for clients to know their work, so when they move on, there’s an expanded network to which they can look for career opportunities.
3. Money. The paid internship has thankfully become more common. We can’t expect excellent work if we’re not compensating for it in more than just experience. Interns are better if they’re eating regular meals.
4. Learning. Interns should be sponges and those mentoring them (which should be everyone with whom they come in contact) should be teaching them something. An intern should finish the semester having learned as much, if not more, from the internship than they did in  semester of school.
5. Reality check. For some, an internship is an eye-opener. They may have thought PR (or whatever the internship is in) was their chosen profession. Frank discussions about life in the industry should take place, providing the intern the opportunity to say, “Whoa. That’s not how I want to live my life.” Or, “Hey! This is great, and the job for me. Sign me up.”

Students or new graduates should be as choosy as firms in selecting an internship. Ask about the kind of work you’ll be asked to do, what opportunities you’ll have to build relationships with internal and external team members. While many may be interested, overwhelmingly so, and understandably, in permanent employment, let that not be your focus. If the fit is right on both sides of the arrangement, you’ll know by the end of the internship.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.